Can't raise nutrients

[phixman]

I recently upgraded systems from a 20 gallon to a 93 gallon tank. I was never able to get a reading on my 20g, but colors were good. I assumed it had to do with my deep sand bed. My new system is bare bottom and I have a hard time getting a reading on nutrients. A month later after doing my tank transfer I got a reading on nutrients, that number dropped and can't get it up anymore.

I've been trying to increase feeding, but I can't get it up without thinking I'm over feeding. The system is 8 months old, but I think I restarted a cycle after I changed out 50% of the rocks and removed the sand bed.

I have a lot of sps, some look pale as a result of my nutrient issue, I get some film algae on the glass ever week to every other week and have diatoms or film on the back wall. My rocks seem fairly clean with coralline growing. Suggestions would be appreciate, I'm about to lose my mind haha.

My feeding routine:
Acropower: 3ml everyday
Benepets: Monday accordingly to instructions
Reefroids: Friday accordingly to instructions
Nori sheet ( about 3/4 the size of a credit card) daily
Hiraki Bio Pure (spirulina brine shrimp)- 1 cube every other day ( lasts me 2 feeds)

Fish:
x2 naked clowns
x1 damsel
x1 six lined wrasse
x1 yellow tang
x1 fairy wrasse- added today

 

[SPR1968]

If your concerned with phosphate, because that’s the chart, depending on what your trying to achieve in your system your phosphate looks perfect with an average of 0.032ppm?

See this
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/

If the corals are suffering have you tried feeding them more, and you don’t mention nitrate levels

Also remember the test kits have a margin or +/- error. If my Hanna reads zero I’m happy because it’s unlikely as I have loads of bio waste from the fish and know the Hanna has a error of +/- 0.04

 

[phixman]

Thanks for the reply, I think the reason it's averaging at .032 is because I had two high readings,before dropping to 0 and staying there, my nitrates are reading 0 , just tested using API. I've been trying to increase the feedings, I nearly doubled how much I feed, but I'm still getting 0 readings on both. I'm trying to figure out if maybe something else is causing these low readings or I'm simply not feeding enough? What is your feeding routing like in terms of what you add to the tank?

 

[SPR1968]

Thanks for the reply, I think the reason it's averaging at .032 is because I had two high readings,before dropping to 0 and staying there, my nitrates are reading 0 , just tested using API. I've been trying to increase the feedings, I nearly doubled how much I feed, but I'm still getting 0 readings on both. I'm trying to figure out if maybe something else is causing these low readings or I'm simply not feeding enough? What is your feeding routing like in terms of what you add to the tank?

I feed 3 frozen cubes around 1pm and then mixed ocean nutrition 1 & 2 pellets around 6.30pm but I have lots of fish and a full blown reef. I also use Reef Energy and Reef Roids a few times per week.

I have the opposite problem of keeping everything down! Lol

Adding more fish will increase your bioload as it doesn’t sound like your anywhere near over stocked

 

[phixman]

Would you recommend adding a few more fish and maybe feeding a bit more until I get readings? I wanted to add a mimic or a tomini tang, but I noticed my lfs stores haven't been doing so great with treatments (they had ich). When do you know you've reached your bioload limit?

 

[BluTang85]

So I have an ultra low nutrient system aswell. My nitrates are .25 and can’t get them up no matter what I do. My phosphates on the other hand are .07. My sps look rough. Upon my research, greenleafaquariums.com offer mono potassium phosphate (kh2po4) which will help increase your phosphate.

 

[phixman]

I saw this video by fishofhex, he has a similar system, but he also has a huge sump. Just thought there would be a better solution since most people tend to have issues keeping nutrients down.

 

[amir basis]

im dealing with the same issue right now with my 250 gal tank.my corals also started to pale up and lose colouration and their growth dropped significantly.
i started dosing two weeks ago kno3 just to keep my no3 between 0.5-1 ppm. my corals are responding very good to it however my problem now is algae blooming (my phosphates where high when started...now it dropped to 0.05 +-).
if your phosphates are low to begin with then maybe its worthwhile to try also kno3 dosing since the risk of algae blooming is low.

 

[SPR1968]

Would you recommend adding a few more fish and maybe feeding a bit more until I get readings? I wanted to add a mimic or a tomini tang, but I noticed my lfs stores haven't been doing so great with treatments (they had ich). When do you know you've reached your bioload limit?

Yes basically, but I would find a new LFS and don’t deal with a shop that could potentially sell you diseased fish or your asking for trouble, even if you run quarantine potentially.

I’m not advertising my tank as a guide to how many fish to have, but I have a lot (my build thread link is below). As long as your nutrient export can cope with it, and of course as long as the fish have enough space and swimming room then your ok in my opinion

You will know when your pushing things because the nutrients will start to increase beyond what the system can export and they will start to rise. And then you will find yourself in the opposite battle trying to reduce them! Lol

It’s all a balancing act but you will soon get the hang of it, but just remember your phosphate level is currently pretty perfect so don’t try and increase it, nitrate yes, but keep the phosphate locked down. A good Nitrate target would be say 10ppm as a guide.

I personally wouldn’t dose any additives to increase nutrients, I would just increase the bioload (do we not all want more fish and corals anyway?) but that’s just my personal preference.

 

[phixman]

After careful examination this morning, I noticed a bloom, looks like something that happens towards the end of a cycle. I think that may explains where all my nutrients keep going. Although I can't tell what the stuff growing on my sps is, it's like a slime of some sort that doesn't blow off.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Sorry, I can't tell much from the photos.

Phixman, are you tracking nitrate too?

 

[phixman]

Yeah , I’ve been getting 0s for a long time. At this point , I decided to removed all my sps and let the tank do it’s thing. It probably needs to mature more . Do you have any suggestions as to what I can add to the tank to make the mature process much more quick other than adding live rock ?

 

[phixman]

From what I was able to conclude , my tank is probably about to start the last cycle : hair algae ( I added new rock and removed the sand which may have resulted in the restart of the cycle) . And since I used dry rock , I’m missing a lot of the beneficial stuff like sponges , pods , etc which has resulted in low nutrients and rtn on my sps, do you know why sps in specific acros hate new tanks even after cycled ?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

, do you know why sps in specific acros hate new tanks even after cycled ?

Not in all cases, no.